For the past 15 years, this Montgomery County, Md., school
district has focused on an oft-ignored populace_students deemed gifted
and learning disabled.

Elementary school teacher Kathleen Famulare halts her 5th grade
advanced-math students as they scramble to grab flashcards to answer
the questions about long multiplication and division on the
chalkboard.

For the past 15 years, this Montgomery County, Md.,
school district has focused on an oft-ignored populace—students
deemed gifted and learning disabled.

The students stop—many with comic exaggeration, their hands in
midreach—and then ready themselves for her next direction.

"Now, who can tell me how to get to the answer?" she asks.

Almost every hand flies up.

For one school administrator looking on, it's hard to believe that
these eager Wyngate Elementary School students are the same ones he saw
sitting in regular classrooms just a year or two ago: dispirited, with
their heads down, or others who were dedicated malcontents, frequently
in trouble.

But since being selected for a special program in the Montgomery
County, Md., public schools designed for gifted students who have
learning disabilities, these students have thrived.

"The difference is amazing," says Richard Weinfeld, the
instructional specialist for the district's program for such students.
"It's really exciting to see these kids so alive and involved and
feeling successful."

For the past 15 years, the suburban Washington, D.C., district has
focused on an oft-ignored population of students deemed "twice
exceptional."

The district, one of the few in the country to have separate classes
exclusively for twice-exceptional students, modeled its initiative
after a program in Westchester County, N.Y. Montgomery County started
the program with the help of a federal grant under the Jacob K. Javits
Gifted and Talented Education Program, but now covers its costs from
its special education and gifted education budgets, Weinfeld says.

Hands-on, active
classwork, such as the flashcards these Montgomery County, Md.,
students are chuckling over, is the key to reaching so-called
twice-exceptional students, school officials say.
—Allison Shelley/Education Week

The 130,000- Montgomery County district will spend, administrators
say, only a negligible amount extra this year on the 175 students who
go to the special classes at magnet school-within-a-school programs at
three elementary schools, three middle schools, and three high schools.
All of the students would have been either in the system's gifted or
special education systems, officials say, so the only extra costs are
for transportation to the magnet schools and minimal administrative
overhead.

County educators believe there may be up to 2,700 gifted students
with learning disabilities in the district, many undiagnosed because
their giftedness compensates for their disability.

Like Famulare's 5th grade math class, the classes for
twice-exceptional students are small, usually no more than 15 students.
A visitor will find the students listening to a lecture and taking
notes, or scribbling on a worksheet. Instead, teachers keep them
active. They work on computers, do group activities and hands-on
projects.

Teachers don't tell the students to get out a pencil and paper, open
the textbook, and turn to page 87. That string of instructions would
cause confusion. Instead, the teachers typically give students
directions one step at a time.

They keep the students in as many mainstream classes as possible to
avoid stigmatization. The twice-exceptional students eat lunch with
other students. And some attend regular or gifted classes for certain
subjects, although the teachers in those classes may provide some
special accommodations for the twice-exceptional students such as
giving them more time on tests, or letting them write on keyboards or
use calculators.

An 'Auditory Learner'

The teachers in the twice-exceptional program can use different
strategies for helping students with behavioral problems.

In Debbie Kleinbord's 5th grade class at Wyngate, the students can
constantly check their status through the day by looking at a poster
with index cards in pockets above their names. If a student acts up, he
or she will get a blue card. If students earn five green cards for good
behavior, they can buy a piece of candy, Kleinbord says.

As the twice-exceptional students get older, many
learn strategies to meet the needs of their disabilities.

In a speech/language class, one student is so concerned about a blue
card accidentally left by his name from an indiscretion the day before,
he stands up and walks over to ask a teacher about it in the middle of
class.

"He couldn't concentrate because he was so upset," Kleinbord says.
It is not uncommon for a student in the program to be on medication.
Stimulants used to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder
suppress appetites, so Kleinbord wants to encourage the children to eat
whenever hunger strikes. She lets her students snack in class whenever
they want.

"These kids frequently are not hungry at lunch, and they need to eat
to concentrate," Kleinbord explains. "I know I can't teach well if I
haven't eaten anything, so why would they be able to learn well if they
are hungry?"

As the twice-exceptional students get older, many learn strategies
to meet the needs of their disabilities and phase out many of their
self-contained twice-exceptional classes. Many become acutely attuned
to their individual learning styles in a way that average students may
never understand about themselves.

"I'm an auditory learner," says Matt Greenspun, a junior at Walter
Johnson High School. "I can remember almost everything that is said to
me."

Greenspun, an old pro at twice-exceptionality who is 16, has been in
the program for three years. He often drops by a resource room in the
high school known as "the Loft" to scan text into a special computer
that reads the words out loud. He also uses books on tape.

He says the program helped motivate him. He has already started his
search for the right college, making several exploratory campus
trips.

"People may have otherwise thought we were lazy," Greenspun says. "I
am not embarrassed if I am singled out for having special needs. It's
been a lot easier for me to know my strengths and weaknesses."

Vol. 21, Issue 8, Page 40

Published in Print: October 24, 2001, as Mining Maryland Diamonds: One District's Solution

Our Maryland page
includes articles and statistics on education issues from the past
year.

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